Bieke Depoorter: "The result was very beautiful in a way because people started to have conversations on top of the images about different topics. I think that in this way, I could show the complexity of the country a little bit more in my work.” The relationships Bieke Depoorter establishes with her subjects are foundational to her artistic practice. In 2011, she made the first of many trips to Egypt in the wake of the revolution, seeking to earn the trust of individuals and families living through times of turmoil and suspicion to allow her to photograph them inside their homes. These regular trips to the country resulted in As It May Be, a series heavily informed by her awareness as an outsider, both culturally and as a photographer. Returning to Egypt with a book dummy later, Depoorter invited people to write on top of the photographs, turning it into a collaborative project of multiple perspectives and views that challenge the viewer. #womenartists #womenphotographer #femalephotographer #photographer #MagnumPhotos #documentaryphotography #photobook #phototok

Myriam Boulos: “Today, the same images that we took to speak up, take space and simply exist are becoming a threat that could be used against us.” Lebanese photographer Myriam Boulos uses photography to explore, defy and resist society, traversing themes of feminism and sexuality and their intersection with the wider social landscape. Boulos’ diaristic series What’s Ours, to be published by Aperture as a photobook later this year, is a striking, personal document of Beirut as seen through her lens. The work depicts the October Revolution of 2019, culminating in the devastating Beirut explosion of 2020, and explores how the protests against systemic corruption also served as a catalyst for social and sexual liberation. #MagnumPhotos #documentaryphotography #phototok #aperture #photography #femaleartist #femalephotographer #womanphotographer #womenartists

Newsha Tavakolian: "I think only images didn’t do justice to the concept of PMS, which is very abstract." Tavakolian's 20-minute film, For The Sake of Calmness, is an experimental take on a reality intensified by the emotional flare of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), the name for the physical and emotional symptoms women can experience in the weeks before their period. Tavakolian discovered several years ago that she was in the bracket of PMS suffers who feel the syndrome's effects most intensely, describing it as "a dark cloud settling over my head for a week at a time." The project began as purely photographic, more in line with her previous work, but she soon realized that images could not do justice to a subject as amorphous and abstract as PMS. Instead, she turned to the medium of film, blending visual narrative with a self-narrated monologue informed by some of the 100-plus women she interviewed over four years and a score by sound artist Kamran Arash nia. The result is an overwhelmingly personal film that grants viewers insight into the heightened period of sensitivity experienced by PMS sufferers. #MagnumPhotos #shortfilm #phototok #conceptualart #pms #premenstrualsyndrome #arttok #womenartists #womeninart #documentaryphotography #photographerlife #filmtok